pd06jy98 The President's Radio Address...

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happiness, the freedom to debate, to dissent, to associate, to worship 
without interference from the state. These are the ideals that were at 
the core of our founding over 220 years ago. These are the ideas that 
led us across our continent and onto the world stage. These are the 
ideals that Americans cherish today.
    As I said in my press conference with President Jiang, we have an 
ongoing quest ourselves to live up to those ideals. The people who 
framed our Constitution understood that we would never achieve 
perfection. They said that the mission of America would always be ``to 
form a more perfect Union,''--in other words, that we would never be 
perfect, but we had to keep trying to do better.

[[Page 1259]]

    The darkest moments in our history have come when we abandoned the 
effort to do better, when we denied freedom to our people because of 
their race or their religion, because there were new immigrants or 
because they held unpopular opinions. The best moments in our history 
have come when we protected the freedom of people who held unpopular 
opinion or extended rights enjoyed by the many to the few who had 
previously been denied them, making, therefore, the promises of our 
Declaration of Independence and Constitution more than faded words on 
old parchment.
    Today, we do not seek to impose our vision on others, but we are 
convinced that certain rights are universal, not American rights or 
European rights or rights for developed nations but the birthrights of 
people everywhere, now enshrined in the United Nations Declaration on 
Human Rights, the right to be treated with dignity, the right to express 
one's opinions, to choose one's own leaders, to associate freely with 
others, and to worship or not, freely, however one chooses.
    In the last letter of his life, the author of our Declaration of 
Independence and our third President, Thomas Jefferson, said then that 
``all eyes are opening to the rights of man.'' I believe that in this 
time, at long last, 172 years after Jefferson wrote those words, all 
eyes are opening to the rights of men and women everywhere.
    Over the past two decades, a rising tide of freedom has lifted the 
lives of millions around the world, sweeping away failed dictatorial 
systems in the former Soviet Union, throughout Central Europe, ending a 
vicious cycle of military coups and civil wars in Latin America, giving 
more people in Africa the chance to make the most of their hard-won 
independence. And from the Philippines to South Korea, from Thailand to 
Mongolia, freedom has reached Asia's shores, powering a surge of growth 
and productivity.
    Economic security also can be an essential element of freedom. It is 
recognized in the United Nations Covenant on Economic, Social, and 
Cultural Rights. In China, you have made extraordinary strides in 
nurturing that liberty and spreading freedom from want, to be a source 
of strength to your people. Incomes are up, poverty is down; people do 
have more choices of jobs and the ability to travel, the ability to make 
a better life. But true freedom includes more than economic freedom. In 
America, we believe it is a concept which is indivisible.
    Over the past 4 days, I have seen freedom in many manifestations in 
China. I have seen the fresh shoots of democracy growing in the villages 
of your heartland. I have visited a village that chose its own leaders 
in free elections. I have also seen the cell phones, the video players, 
the fax machines carrying ideas, information, and images from all over 
the world. I've heard people speak their minds, and I have joined people 
in prayer in the faith of my own choosing. In all these ways, I felt a 
steady breeze of freedom.
    The question is, where do we go from here? How do we work together 
to be on the right side of history together? More than 50 years ago, Hu 
Shi, one of your great political thinkers and a teacher at this 
university, said these words: ``Now some people say to me you must 
sacrifice your individual freedom so that the nation may be free. But I 
reply, the struggle for individual freedom is the struggle for the 
nation's freedom. The struggle for your own character is the struggle 
for the nation's character.'' We Americans believe Hu Shi was right. We 
believe and our experience demonstrates that freedom strengthens 
stability and helps nations to change.
    One of our Founding Fathers, Benjamin Franklin, once said, ``Our 
critics are our friends, for they show us our faults.'' Now, if that is 
true, there are many days in the United States when the President has 
more friends than anyone else in America. [Laughter] But it is so.
    In the world we live in, this global information age, constant 
improvement and change is necessary to economic opportunity and to 
national strength. Therefore, the freest possible flow of information, 
ideas, and opinions and a greater respect for divergent political and 
religious convictions will actually breed strength and stability going 
forward.
    It is, therefore, profoundly in your interest, and the world's, that 
young Chinese minds be free to reach the fullness of their potential. 
That is the message of our time and the

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mandate of the new century and the new millennium.
    I hope China will more fully embrace this mandate. For all the 
grandeur of your history, I believe your greatest days are still ahead. 
Against great odds in the 20th century, China has not only survived, it 
is moving forward dramatically.
    Other ancient cultures failed because they failed to change. China 
has constantly proven the capacity to change and grow. Now, you must 
reimagine China again for a new century, and your generation must be at 
the heart of China's regeneration.
    The new century is upon us. All our sights are turned toward the 
future. Now, your country has known more millennia than the United 
States has known centuries. Today, however, China is as young as any 
nation on Earth. This new century can be the dawn of a new China, proud 
of your ancient greatness, proud of what you are doing, prouder still of 
the tomorrows to come. It can be a time when the world again looks to 
China for the vigor of its culture, the freshness of its thinking, the 
elevation of human dignity that is apparent in its works. It can be a 
time when the oldest of nations helps to make a new world.
    The United States wants to work with you to make that time a 
reality.
    Thank you very much.

Expanding U.S. Understanding of China

    Q. Mr. President, I'm very honored to be the first one to raise 
question. Just as you mentioned in your address, Chinese and American 
people should join hands and move forward together. And what is most 
important in this process is for us to have more exchanges.
    In our view, since China is opening up in reform, we have had better 
understanding of the culture, history, and literature of America, and we 
have also learned a lot about you from the biography. And we have also 
learned about a lot of American Presidents. And we have also seen the 
movie Titanic. But it seems that the American people's understanding of 
the Chinese people is not as much as the other way around. Maybe they 
are only seeing China through several movies, describing the Cultural 
Revolution or the rural life.
    So my question is, as the first President of the United States 
visiting China in 10 years, what do you plan to do to enhance the real 
understanding and the respect between our two peoples?
    Thank you.
    The President. First of all, I think that's a very good point. And 
one of the reasons that I came here was to try to--because, as you can 
see, a few people come with me from the news media--I hope that my trip 
would help to show a full and balanced picture of modern China to the 
United States, and that by coming here, it would encourage others to 
come here and others to participate in the life of China.
    I see a young man out in the audience who introduced himself to me 
yesterday as the first American ever to be a law student in China. So I 
hope we will have many more Americans coming here to study, many more 
Americans coming here to be tourists, many more Americans coming here to 
do business. The First Lady this morning and the Secretary of State had 
a meeting on a legal project. We are doing a lot of projects together 
with the Chinese to help promote the rule of law. That should bring a 
lot more people here.
    I think there is no easy answer to your question. It's something we 
have to work at. We just need more people involved and more kinds of 
contacts. And I think the more we can do that, the better.
    Is there another question?

Taiwan

    Q. Mr. President, as a Chinese, I'm very interested in the 
reunification of my motherland. Since 1972, progress has been made on 
the question of Taiwan question, but we have seen that the Americans 
repeatedly are selling advanced weapons to Taiwan. And to our great 
indignation, we have seen that the United States and Japan have renewed 
the U.S.-Japan security treaty. And according to some Japanese 
officials, this treaty even includes Taiwan Province of China. So I have 
to ask, if China were to send its naval facility to Hawaii, and if China 
were to sign a security treaty with other countries against one

[[Page 1261]]

part of the United States, will the United States agree to such an act? 
Will the American people agree to such an act?
    The President. First of all, the United States policy is not an 
obstacle to the peaceful reunification of China and Taiwan. Our policy 
is embodied in the three communiques and in the Taiwan Relations Act. 
Our country recognized China and embraced a ``one China'' policy almost 
20 years ago. And I reaffirmed our ``one China'' policy to President 
Jiang in our meetings.
    Now, when the United States and China reached agreement that we 
would have a ``one China'' policy, we also reached agreement that the 
reunification would occur by peaceful means, and we have encouraged the 
cross-strait dialog to achieve that. Our policy is that any weapon 
sales, therefore, to Taiwan must be for defensive purposes only, and 
that the country must not believe--China must not believe that we are in 
any way trying to undermine our own ``one China'' policy. It is our 
policy. But we do believe it should occur--any reunification should 
occur peacefully.
    Now, on Japan, if you read the security agreement we signed with 
Japan, I think it will be clear from its terms that the agreement is not 
directed against any country but rather in support of stability in Asia. 
We have forces in South Korea that are designed to deter a resumption of 
the Korean war across the dividing line between the two Koreas. Our 
forces in Japan are largely designed to help us promote stability 
anywhere in the Asia-Pacific region on short notice. But I believe that 
it is not fair to say that either Japan or the United States have a 
security relationship that is designed to contain China. Indeed, what 
both countries want is a security partnership with China for the 21st 
century.
    For example, you mentioned NATO, we have expanded NATO in Europe, 
but we also have made a treaty, an agreement between NATO and Russia, to 
prove that we are not against Russia anymore. And the most important 
thing NATO has done in the last 5 years is to work side by side with 
Russia to end the war in Bosnia. And I predict to you that what you see 
us doing with China now, working together to try to limit the tension 
from the Indian and the Pakistani nuclear tests, you will see more and 
more and more of that in the future. And I think you will see a lot of 
security cooperation in that area. And we can't see the agreements of 
today through the mirror of yesterday's conflicts.

China-U.S. Relations

    Q. Mr. President, I've very glad to have this opportunity to ask you 
a question. With a friendly smile you have set foot on the soil of 
China, and you have come to the campus of ``Beida'', so we are very 
excited and honored by your presence, for the Chinese people really 
aspire for the friendship between China and the United States on the 
basis of equality. As I know that--before your departure from the 
States, you said that the reason for you to visit China is because China 
is too important, and engagement is better than containment.
    I'd like to ask you whether this sentence is kind of a commitment 
you made for your visit or do you have any other hidden sayings behind 
this smile. Do you have any other design to contain China? [Laughter]
    The President. If I did, I wouldn't mask it behind a smile. 
[Laughter] But I don't. That is, my words mean exactly what they say. We 
have to make a decision, all of us do, but especially the people who 
live in large nations with great influence must decide how to define 
their greatness.
    When the Soviet Union went away, Russia had to decide how to define 
its greatness. Would they attempt to develop the human capacity of the 
Russian people and work in partnership with their neighbors for a 
greater future, or would they remember the bad things that happened to 
them in the past 200 years and think the only way they could be great 
would be to dominate their neighbors militarily? They chose a forward 
course. The world is a better place.
    The same thing is true with China. You will decide, both in terms of 
your policies within your country and beyond, what does it mean that 
China will be a great power in the 21st century? Does it mean that you 
will have enormous economic success? Does it mean you will have enormous 
cultural influence? Does it mean that you will be able to play a large 
role in solving the problems of the world? Or does it mean you will be

[[Page 1262]]

able to dominate your neighbors in some form or fashion, whether they 
like it or not? This is the decision that every great country has to 
make.
    You ask me, do I really want to contain China? The answer is no. The 
American people have always had a very warm feeling toward China that 
has been interrupted from time to time when we have had problems. But if 
you go back through the history of our country, there's always been a 
feeling on the part of our people that we ought to be close to the 
Chinese people. And I believe that it would be far better for the people 
of the United States to have a partnership on equal, respectful terms 
with China in the 21st century than to have to spend enormous amounts of 
time and money trying to contain China because we disagree with what's 
going on beyond our borders. So I do not want that. I want a 
partnership. I'm not hiding another design behind a smile; it's what I 
really believe, because I think it's good for the American people, and 
it's my job to do what's good for them. What's good for them is to have 
a good relationship with you.

Education/Aspirations for Young People

    Q. Mr. President, I'm going to graduate this year, and I'm going to 
work in Bank of China. Just now, Mr. President, you mentioned the 
responsibilities of the young generation of the two countries for 
international security, environment, and the financial stability. I 
think they are really important. And I think the most important thing is 
for the young people to be well educated. And I know, Mr. President, you 
love your daughter very much, and she is now studying at Stanford. So, 
my question is--several years ago you proposed the concept of knowledge 
economy, so, my first question is, what do you think the education of 
higher learning, what kind of role can this play in the future knowledge 
economy?
    And the second question is, what expectations do you have, Mr. 
President, for the younger generation of our two countries?
    The President. Let me answer the knowledge economy question first. 
And let me answer by telling you what I have tried to do in the United 
States. I have tried to create a situation in America in which the doors 
of universities and colleges are open to every young person who has 
sufficient academic achievement to get in, that there are no financial 
burdens of any kind. And we have not completely achieved it, but we have 
made a great deal of progress.
    Now, why would I do that? Because I believe that the more advanced 
an economy becomes, the more important it is to have a higher and higher 
and higher percentage of people with a university education. Let me just 
tell you how important it is in the United States. We count our people--
every 10 years we do a census and we count the numbers of the American 
people, and we get all kinds of information on them. In the 1990 census, 
younger Americans who had a college degree were overwhelmingly likely to 
get good jobs and have their incomes grow. Younger Americans who had 2 
years or more of university were likely to get good jobs and have their 
incomes grow. Younger Americans who didn't go to university at all were 
likely to get jobs where their incomes declined and were much more 
likely to be unemployed.
    And the more advanced China's economy becomes, the more that will be 
true of China, the more you will need very large numbers of people 
getting university education and technical education. So I think it is 
very, very important.
    Now, let me say one expectation I have for the younger generation of 
Americans and Chinese that has nothing to do with economics. One of the 
biggest threats to your future is a world which is dominated not by 
modern problems but by ancient hatreds. Look around the world, and see 
how much trouble is being caused by people who dislike each other 
because of their racial or their religious or their ethnic differences, 
whether it's in Bosnia or the conflict between the Indians and the 
Pakistanis or in the Middle East or the tribal continents in Africa.
    You look all over the world, you see these kind of problems. Young 
people are more open to others who are different, more interested in 
people who are different. And I hope young people in China and young 
people in America that have a good education will be a strong voice in 
the world against giving in to this sort of hating people or looking 

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